Pure Michigan Pork.

Detroit's WXYZ-TV has been exposing some pork-barrel spending by the Michigan government: a new $117M State Police HQ that the troopers did not request, but does benefit a Governor Granholm supporter with a no-bid contract, replacing a dollar-a-year lease on the present HQ campus. Recall that Jennie-G touted an end on no-bid contracts in the 2007 State of the State speech.

The Phony Crisis in Lansing.

The state government of Michigan is facing a "shutdown" of services, caused by the budget impasse. This is the total failure of vision and leadership by Governor Granholm. The state is caught in a confluence of economic torrents: the loss of both manufacturing and high-tech jobs (in a state considered to be one of the most hostile to business), the preciptous decline of home prices (one of the worst markets in the U.S.), and the loss of tourism dollars caused by higher fuel prices. In the midst of this mess the state government finds itself $1.7B short in its budget - less than 4% of the total. Yet the Governor cannot find the discipline to eliminate this excess spending and instead cynically creates a phony crisis that threatens a shutdown of state services that could hurt many citizens and ruin the state credit rating. She chooses politics and infantile theatrics over leadership - refusing to force the state government to provide services more efficiently, declaring that any attempt to do so is an attack on children, the elderly, and the poor. Instead she decides to cause high-profile inconvience by closing state services to all Michiganders. If we can't find a way to cut state spending in this kind of financial crisis and instead insist on raising income taxes, then God help us - the Leviathan has swallowed us up.

To State It Succinctly...

You don't invite to one's university a representative of a government that supplies men and arms that are killing your country's soldiers. It's immoral and irresponsible.

(Note Bene: the following fantasy satire has been superceded by the truth. Remarkable! Thanks to LGF)

Coming Soon to Speak at Columbia!

From a press release issued by the Columbia Press Office:

On August 1,1939, Columbia University's School for Public and International Affairs (SIPA) is sponsoring an appearance by Dr. Joeseph Goebbels, Germany's Reichminister for Propaganda and National Elightenment, to participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students. SIPA is initiating a year-long series of lectures and events entitled "Germany: Six Years of National Socialism", which will include academic experts as well as officials and critics of the Third Reich.

The opportunity for faculty and students to engage Dr. Goebbels came about after German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop initated contact with Columbia through SIPA faculty members who are experts on German history and politics.

Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler emphasized that such events must allow ample time for students and faculty to pose questions that challenge the views expressed by the speakers. President Butler will introduce the event by challenging Dr. Goebbels on a number of his controversial statements and his government's policies, including his statements regarding undue Jewish influence in the Anglo-American democracies, and his call for the segregation and containment of the Jewish people in Europe. The US government has accused the German government of supporting violence and discrimination against Jews living in Germany, including last year's alleged wide-scale violence against German Jews (the so-called "Kristallnacht") and reports of imprisonment of Jews, intellectuals and political opponents.

President Butler further stated, "I would like to add a few comments on the principles that underlie this event. Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas—to understand the world as it is and as it might be. To fulfill this mission we must respect and defend the rights of our schools, our deans and our faculty to create programming for academic purposes. Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most or even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason."

After his appearance at Columbia, Dr. Goebbels will conclude his visit to the United States with a speech to the German-American Bund in Madison Square Garden on the night of August 2, 1939.

Cutting Michigan's Throat.

The Democrat-controlled Michigan House of Representatives, along with Democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm, are insisting on an 18% increase in the state income tax in order to close the $1.7B budget deficit by $1.1B. The State Senate, headed by Republican Mike Bishop, proposed a cuts-only solution that was DOA. The Senate may now retune this proposal with a mix of cuts and a smaller income tax hike.

The total Michigan state budget is $45.2B, so the $1.7B shortfall is about 3.8% of the total. Here is the breakdown of the 2006 budget:

• Education $14.7 (Billions)


• Health Services $10.0


• Human Services $4.4


• Transportation $3.2


• Police & Prisons $2.5


• Government $2.3


• Unemployment $2.0


• Lottery Admin $1.6


• Revenue Sharing $1.1


• Regulatory $0.9


• Tax Credits $0.9


• DNR & Ag $0.7


• Business Funds $0.6


• Debt Service $0.3

The standard histrionics have been employed by the Governor in resisting cuts in the budget in favor of higher taxes to "protect education". This is a red herring: cutting the budget does not have to take a single dollar that is actually delivered as a dollar of real value to education. The state government must become more efficient in delivering value to schools, and that means jettisoning irrelevant administrative overhead and educational programs of dubious worth. See if you can find a few at the state's education website.

Education should not take a disproportionate hit, only its share, which would be 35% of the total shortfall, or about $550M. It also may be true that inefficiency is even worse in other spending areas, but the education portion of the budget is so huge that it has to be part of the budget balancing equation. Businesses routinely face the challenge of cutting overhead while maintaining the ability to grow value. Why can't it be so for the state government?

But it is truly economic suicide to hike income and other taxes while the state reels from job losses and possesses a nation-leading unemployment rate.

Gather at the River.

Project Healing Waters helps disabled vets of all ages, using flyfishing as a tool for rehabilitation and healing. God Bless their work. You can support them here.

Suppose ANSWER Held a Rally and Hardly Anybody Came?

The neo-Bolshevik group ANSWER Coalition held Yet Another March on Washington today, and wow! What a turnout! (Photo from Victory Caucus)

Age of Hooper chronicles this historic event.

Postscript: Well, we'll be fair - about 10,000 or so people showed up (about 1/11 th of those on hand for the Michigan-Notre Dame game). Certainly not the 100,000 that the ANSWER Ministry for Truth would claim. The Gathering of Eagles counterprotest was reasonably well attended, about a thousand or so. Perhaps the ratio of attendees between the two events is directly proportional to the unemployment rate of their memberships?

General Petraeus Goes to Washington.

It must be wonderful to be convinced of the irrefutable and incontrovertable rightness of one's beliefs. It allows one complete license to smear and besmirch the reputation of people who have devoted their lives to the protection of the people of the United States and her Constitution. Such must be the case with the "citizens" at MoveOn.org. When the ends justify the means it brings such a feeling of holiness to what would otherwise be regarded as repugnant and despicable character assassination. What difference does it really make if you call a distinguished and devoted warrior a traitor? If it serves "the cause", then it's actually a sacrament to do just that.

MoveOn ran this ad regarding Gen. Petraeus in the New York Times today. It reminded us of a flyer that was passed out by another group of True Believers to a Dallas, Texas crowd some forty-four years ago, as they awaited the passing motorcade of their President:


Thanks, MoveOn.org, for elevating the discourse on the Iraq War to such ethereal levels. You, too, may want to thank them personally at their comments page.

Ron Paul, Visionary Genius and Prophet.

Before the ZOG can implant the brain-control chips, they'll have to take out Iran...

Thanks to Ace of Spades for this perfect summary of Herr Doktor Paul:

...a conspiratorially-minded populist demogogue with the kind of ruthlessly reductivist thinking required by the simple-minded to make sense of a complex world.

The New Hampshire GOP Bull Session.

Can we vote a few of these guys off the island now? Misters Brownback, Huckabee, Tancredo, thanks for coming in, but we're going in a different direction. Mr. Romney, you look marvelous, but...well, you look great. And will security please escort Mr. Paul out of the building immediately...

By the way it's amazing how the PaulKooks have clogged the search engines with their propaganda triggered on "republican debate". And do I detect the odor of anti Semitism in a few of Mr. Paul's answers?

The Suit.

Mitt Romney is handsome and owns great hair. He wears his suit very well. His handlers' strategy is clear: keep him smiling, keep his contribution in policy debates to Miss America platitudes, and let the money and organization run its course. God help the GOP.

Ban Popcorn Now!

We must stop the scourge of "yellow-lung" caused by the selfish demand for buttered popcorn in bars, restaurants, theatres, and other public places. Do it for the children!

Auf Wiedersehen.

Volkswagen announced today it was moving its headquarters out of Michigan to Virginia:

A message from Stefan Jacoby to Volkswagen of America employees: Dear Colleagues:Good morning. Today we are announcing a new strategic direction for our Company that will allow us to grow our U.S. business by fostering a culture of fresh ideas and bold thinking — and connecting better with our customers...

The message that VW sent was that being Michigan-based would not help provide VW the imagination and creativity to compete in the automobile industry. VW's exit and the shuttering of Pfizer's R&D facility in Ann Arbor suggest that the Governor's dream to make Michigan the vertex for high-valued added jobs is floundering.

Fishing the Pere Marquette.

A tough eight-hour wade in the Flies Only section produced a few fiesty rainbows on a variety of dry flies. It was very tough fishing. The monster browns laid in the deep pools and watched the entertainment. The author also received two full-immersion baptisms in the legendary river. Alas, a Padron Churchill did not survive the first dunking.

Lambasting CNN's "God's Warriors".

MSNBC's Dan Abrams scolds CNN's Christine Amanpour for advocacy journalism.

The Assault on Freedom - the Michigan Front.

The Nonsmoking Hordes of Michigan are now pushing for a complete ban on smoking in most businesses. The principal targets would be restaurants and bars, with mercy granted toward tobacconists and cigar bars...for now.

We believe there is a whopper being told as part of this campaign, namely the suggestion that some 1800 Michiganders die each year from exposure to second-hand smoke. This is more than the yearly death toll in motor vehicle accidents in the state. There is likely an imaginative use of statistics is involved in this claim; the level of risk from second-hand smoke (or environmental tobacco smoke, ETS) has been claimed to be significant in some studies, and almost negligible in others. There are also other mitigating factors, such as proper ventilation, that are not considered by the pro-ban forces. Moreover, other occupational hazards involved in restaurants and bars are taken for granted, such as prolonged exposure to burning oils and liquids, grill smoke and aerosols, cutting tools, etc. How many grillcooks lives may have been cut short because of our love for a charburger?

There are many businesses that have voluntarily become smoke-free. Fine - it is the proprietor's rights to do so, and if the marketplace supports their stand, so be it. But there is no inherent right for a nonsmoker to demand that every proprietor provide an entirely smoke free environment. Nonsmokers do have a legitimate recourse to this insult to their sensibilities: refuse to patronize such unelightented establishments. And we'll celebrate your freedom of choice as you walk on by with the ignition of a fine premium cigar.

Operation Care Package.



With a donation of $25 you can sponsor a care package and include a personal message of support and encouragement. These USO Care Packages at minimum, include requested items such as pre-paid worldwide phone cards, sunscreen, travel size toiletries, disposable camera and a message from the donor thanking them for their service and sacrifice (from the USO Website).

Come on, it's the price of a large pizza...

Rocky's Update on the Stamp Act Cigar Tax.

Rocky Patel Speaks Out About the Cigar Tax.

Leave us Alone!

Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered - Thomas Paine

The tyrants are back: a cigar tax, to be levied at the rate of $10 per stick, is being planned by the Weasels of Washington. It's for the children, you know, to fund health care. This bullying stops NOW. My flintlock hangs over our mantel; I've got plenty of shot, and my powder is dry.